Book picks similar to
The Refining (Book One) by J.C. Brown


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Sonya Loveday
    Jake Aceton is their newest acquisition. Recruited from boot camp before graduation after being handpicked by Grant Jackson, Jake is plunged into the mysterious underground world, forever changing his life.Regardless of his relevance to Cole Enterprise, Jake has a hard time looking past all he has to give up. Can he learn to live in his own shadow in order to protect those he loves?

The Last Summer Sister


Rachel Cullen - 2021
    But when their father's untimely death reveals an earth-shattering secret, everything they thought they knew about their family -- and their future -- changes overnight.Jen spent her childhood feeling like the ugly duckling, while Lynn longed to be appreciated for something other than her looks. Consequently, both sisters competed for their father's affections but were never satisfied. Jen still hasn't forgiven Lynn for fleeing to California to follow her dreams, leaving Jen to tend to their father and the family insurance business in Chicago's North Shore suburbs. Meanwhile, Lynn is living in exile in Los Angeles, forced to endure the pain of her humiliating divorce in silence because she is too ashamed to reveal her mistakes to her perfect older sister.As the youngest member of the trio, Courtney's life is also turned upside down due to her father's death, only for an entirely different reason; Courtney didn't even know he existed until after he was gone. Now she has to figure out what life looks like with two older sisters who can't stand each other while attempting to piece together her fractured youth.Although this tragedy should bring the sisters together, the depth of their father's betrayal coupled with their tumultuous past makes reconciliation nearly impossible. Only time will tell if the bonds of sisterhood are strong enough to mend past transgressions or if the sisters, and their secrets, will destroy the Summer family forever.

Listen to My Heartbeat


Prajnaa
    He did not speak. He just kept looking into my eyes without as much as a blink."And then...?" he said, in his arrogant voice. "You want to be my girlfriend next?"Merge yourself in the world of... Aryan, Trisha, Rohan, Danny and Aysha.An inescapable story of love and tears that gets your heartbeat racing.

When The Skies Cry


Steve N. Lee - 2021
    Day after day, he trudges the streets, trembling from the biting cold, whimpering from the gnawing hunger.Across town, Rachel has an alimony hearing looming and a make-or-break deadline hurtling toward her, yet they aren’t her biggest worries — her autistic son has withdrawn so far into his own private world, he barely acknowledges she even exists.Luckily, the magic of life is in the surprises no one ever sees coming…Praise for As The Stars Fall: A Book for Dog Lovers book #1:★★★★★ “A great story with a beautiful, heart-warming ending.” Tom Kiker, Amazon★★★★★ “A heart-warming, touching, and poignant novel about the love between a dog and a young girl.” Paula, Amazon★★★★★ “A story that is equal parts intense beauty and heart wrenching agony… I know I'll still think of this story years down the road.” Insatiable Readers book blog★★★★★ “Thought provoking and well written. [I] loved it so much I’ve bought 2 paperbacks to give as Christmas presents! It’ll break your heart and rebuild it again.” C. Johnson, Amazon★★★★★ “A perfect book for dog lovers. It is a story of courage, determination and love.” Library Lady, Amazon★★★★★ “I almost laughed myself into an asthma attack during certain scenes and cried at the end of this book, all the while wondering if this is how my own dog perceives me.” Kathy Banfield, Goodreads★★★★★ “[I] highly recommend it especially if you like books like Marley and Me, The Art of Racing in the Rain, and similar stories.” Storeybook Reviews book blogIf you love dogs, and enjoy stories just as heartwarming as they are heartbreaking, you need to read When The Skies Cry.

Look I Bought Plants: And Other Poems About Life and Stuff


Taylor Garron - 2021
    From career struggles to astronomical student debt to climate change angst, there's a lot to worry about. Look I Bought Plants: And Other Poems about Life and Stuff was dreamt up by two twenty-somethings—Taylor Garron and Eva Victor—who love jokes and sex, in that order. From silly slices of life to R-rated encounters, their witty, irreverent, and satirical poetry reflects on everyday challenges, relationships, and everything else there is to be anxious about.For the millennial trying to put together their IKEA furniture, your cool niece with the septum piercing, or anyone who has ever dated someone in their head, Look I Bought Plants is a funny, charming reminder that you aren't alone and we can all commiserate.• TIMELY AND RELATABLE CONTENT: Millennials may be exhausted, but their own amusing attitudes towards their exhaustion never tire! This book takes a cynical yet laughable approach—the millennial experience perfectly encapsulated in verse. Each poem is highly relatable and you may find yourself saying, "Okay, this is me."• RISING STAR AUTHORS: Eva Victor's writing is published in The New Yorker and she has appeared on various media outlets including Forbes. Taylor Garron's work has been featured in The New Yorker, The Onion, and Vulture.• GREAT PRESENT OR SELF-PURCHASE: With a vivid design, a low price point, and relatable content, Look I Bought Plants begs to be shared with all of your friends and gifted to you by your family. It's trendy and affordable—just the way millennials like it!

Misery Bay: A Mystery


Chris Angus - 2016
    But the islands and hidden coves hide something more sinister. Illegal immigrants and drugs are being smuggled in for the escort services in Halifax. Special Constable Garrett Barkhouse has spent twenty years fighting these twin scourges, but now he’s burned out and planning to retire. However, his boss, Deputy Commissioner Alton Tuttle, has other plans. He entices Garrett to return to his old home town and establish a police presence on the Eastern shore. What he expects will be light duty—Garrett quickly discovers—is anything but. An unexpected murder of four young girls leads him into a thick web of interconnecting drug pushers, illegal immigrants, and prostitution.While he tries to get a handle on events, Garrett is sucked back into many of the relationships from his childhood. The cast of colorful characters includes Roland Cribby, a scallop fisherman and all around unpleasant character, old man Publicover who has just married his fifth wife, beautiful reporter Kitty Wells, and Garrett’s cousin, a giant of a man who is an enforcer for the Longshoremen on the waterfront in Halifax.An offshore oil rig, conveniently outside Canadian territorial waters, becomes the focus of the investigation. Global Resources CEO Anthony DeMaio has developed a nice sideline to the oil business. When Kitty Wells—the beautiful reporter—tries to investigate, she is swept up by the machinations and kidnapped into sex slavery. As a series of hurricanes push in from the North Atlantic, Garrett and Lonnie find themselves fighting not only drug lords and CEOs but also the elements that threaten to topple the oil rig and kill everyone on board.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Beautiful Lies


Heather Bentley - 2016
    But looks can be deceiving, and in my family, deception is an art form. So, I bide my time and count the days until I’m free. Heiress Christina Harcourt lives a life surrounded by the finest this world has to offer. Unfortunately, what she wants most can’t be bought. After losing her mother in a heinous crime, she tries her best to live the life she knows her mother would want for her. But through her family’s hurtful ways, Christina learns the only way to do that, is to leave this life far behind. Everything is going as planned, until she meets him.Sexy, carefree CJ Whitford is a hard-working, blue collar guy who can’t get the guarded brunette out of his head. So, he takes a chance and rearranges his life to go after the girl he’s falling for. He quickly discovers that Christina’s secrets are as big as her heart. A heart so fragile that all it will take to destroy it is one more lie…his.TRIGGER WARNING: Please read reviews before purchasing.

Tiny House on the Hill


Celia Bonaduce - 2017
    . .Summer Murray is ready to shake things up. She doesn’t want to work in risk management. She doesn’t want to live in Hartford, Connecticut. So she plans a grand adventure: she’s going to throw out all the stuff she doesn’t want and travel the country in her very own tiny house house shaped like a train caboose. Just Summer, her chihuahua-dachshund Shortie, and 220 square feet of freedom.Then her take-no-prisoners grandmother calls to demand Summer head home to the Pacific Northwest to save the family bakery. Summer has her reasons for not wanting to return home, but she’ll just park her caboose, fix things, and then be on her way. But when she gets to Cat’s Paw, Washington, she’s shocked by her grandmother’s strange behavior and reunited with a few people she’d hoped to avoid. If Summer is going to make a fresh start, she’ll have to face the past she’s been running from all along . . .

Lucifer's Son


Sergey Mavrodi - 2008
    the world of angels and devils, of Lucifer and Lucifer's son, the world of temptation and seduction in his latest masterpiece of deviltry and suspense. In a world of horror and fear that is almost too realistic to be fiction, Mavrodi's characters burst from the pages, come alive and open up their innermost beings... revelations that will shock and astound the reader, who--while filled with fear and anxiety--will be unable to put LUCIFER'S SON down until the last terrifying scene.

The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes: A story of love, loss, and rock-and-roll


Xio Axelrod - 2021
    Seb was a little older, a lot wiser, and he became Toni's way out, promising they'd escape their small town together. Then Seb turned eighteen and split without looking back.Now, Toni B is all grown up and making a name for herself in Philadelphia's indie rock scene. When a friend suggests she try out for the hottest new band in the country, she decides to take a chance. She's in for a surprise when one of the decision-makers turns out to be none other than Seb. Toni can handle it. No problem. Or it wouldn't be if Seb didn't still hold a piece of her heart, not to mention the key to her future.

You're the One That I Want


Giovanna Fletcher - 2014
    At the end of the aisle is Rob - the man she's about to marry. Next to Rob is Ben - best man and the best friend any two people ever had.And that's the problem.Because if it wasn't Rob waiting for her at the altar, there's a strong chance it would be Ben. Loyal and sensitive Ben has always kept his feelings to himself, but if he turned round and told Maddy she was making a mistake, would she listen? And would he be right?Best friends since childhood, Maddy, Ben and Rob thought their bond was unbreakable. But love changes everything. Maddy has a choice to make but will she choose wisely? Her heart, and the hearts of the two best men she knows, depend on it...

I Have Lost My Way


Gayle Forman - 2018
    After the three of them collide in Central Park, they slowly reveal the parts of their past that they haven't been able to confront, and together, they find their way back to who they're supposed to be.Told over the course of a single day from three different perspectives, Gayle Forman's newest novel about the power of friendship and being true to who you are is filled with the elegant prose that her fans have come to know and love.

Your Rhythm


Katia Rose - 2018
    After her first step into the world of music journalism ended with a screw-up so royal it deserved a crown, Kay’s been struggling to re-stack the building blocks of her career. Salvation comes in the form of Sherbrooke Station, the latest alt-rock craze to grace Montreal’s legendary music scene. A front page feature on the band everyone’s talking about seems like a foolproof shot at success, even after Kay meets their drummer. Matt Pearson might have a smile sexy enough to be the eighth deadly sin and a passion for music so powerful it makes her heart ache, but Kay’s got things under control.She’s a professional, goddammit, and a professional would not get tongue-tied over a source.A professional would not find herself opening her door at an hour long past midnight to pull said source inside and lead him to her bed. No, that’s not at all what a professional would do.Your Rhythm is part of the Sherbrooke Station Quartet, a series of steamy rock star standalones from author Katia Rose.

Tone Deaf


Olivia Rivers - 2016
    Her world is silent.Ali Collins was a child prodigy destined to become one of the greatest musicians of the twenty-first century—until she was diagnosed with a life-changing brain tumor. Now, at seventeen, Ali lives in a soundless world where she gets by with American Sign Language and lip-reading. She’s a constant disappointment to her father, a retired cop fighting his own demons, and the bruises are getting harder to hide.When Ali accidentally wins a backstage tour with the chart-topping band Tone Deaf, she’s swept back into the world of music. Jace Beckett, the nineteen-year-old lead singer of the band, has a reputation. He’s a jerk and a player, and Ali wants nothing to do with him. But there’s more to Jace than the tabloids let on. When Jace notices Ali’s bruises and offers to help her escape to New York, Ali can’t turn down the chance at freedom and a fresh start. Soon she’s traveling cross-country, hidden away in Jace’s RV as the band finishes their nationwide tour. With the help of Jace, Ali sets out to reboot her life and rediscover the music she once loved.

Coming Home


Jourdyn Kelly - 2016
    She owns a trendy, in-demand flower boutique, has wonderful friends, and an obsession with red velvet cake. After a string of disappointing dates, Blaise decides to give up on dating, and focus on the things that are most important to her.Greyson Steele is the “family stud”. After his stint in the Delta Force, he is coerced into the family business. His manipulative mother is planning a wedding for him to a woman he can’t stand. But Greyson had other plans. At thirty-nine, Greyson is ready to settle down, but only with a woman he chooses. After meeting the fiery owner of Knight in Bloom, Greyson finds his match.Sparks fly when Blaise and Greyson meet. Can he convince her to take a chance on him? Or will Blaise’s past ruin their chances for a future? Their romance forces Greyson on a chase halfway around the world to solve a mystery, and find his love.